Miracle Moments In Mets History Is Simply Amazing

Don Laible

Saturday

Jul 7, 2018 at 6:52 AM

Brett Topel is at it again. Here's a suggestion for the top of your baseball summer baseball reading list – Miracle Moments In New York Mets History (www.sportspubbooks.com). So the club in Queens isn't doing so hot, so far, this season – deal with it. One way to make it through the hard times as […]

Brett Topel is at it again.

Here's a suggestion for the top of your baseball summer baseball reading list – Miracle Moments In New York Mets History (www.sportspubbooks.com).

So the club in Queens isn't doing so hot, so far, this season – deal with it. One way to make it through the hard times as a Mets fan today is to go back in time. Topel has uncovered and expanded on the turning points, the memorable games, and the incredible records in Mets history that is going to make you feel all warm and fuzzy, for the next time you tune in or turn on the next game's broadcast.

Like a fine Italian sauce, Topel's ingredients in Miracle Moments are plentiful and mixed with a lot of hardball love.

Need a review on the Mets' first win in 1962? You're covered. Tom Seaver's near perfect game tossed in 1969 – Topel dishes the details. Who doesn't want to remember and get additional details on Dwight Gooden's introduction to the team as a teenager in 1984? Remember Gary Carter's opening day walk-off home run in 1985? What would Mets history be without talking Brooklyn-born Lee Mazzilli, and his 1979 all-star appearance? Todd Pratt, Jerry Koosman, Jeurys Familia, to Daniel Murphy, and so many more players in-between, Topel has stuffed more Mets magic in 152 pages than most have attempted.

The Mets are Topel's business.

Back in 2016, When Shea Was Home – The Story of the 1975 Mets, Yankees, Giants, and Jets was Topel's introduction to unique times played out in Flushing, Queens. A year later, So you Think You're A Mets Fan was written. Reading about the Mets from a passionate fan like Topel is what makes Miracle Moments in a league of its own.

Enjoying the good times of cheering on the guys in orange and blue in Queens, like the World Series appearances ('69, '73, '86, '00, '15), and enduring the often extended rough patches of losing seasons is all part of being a die-hard fan. Given that the Mets are in fourth place in the National League East with a record of 35-49, and 12.5 games behind the first-place Philadelphia Phillies (who knew ?), frustrations levels with Mets fans remain on the rise.

“It's not easy, right,? says Topel. “Disappointed. Whatever could go wrong has. They (Mets) can't seem to get out of their own way.”

Being a Mets fan has never been easy, dating back to season one – in 1962. The team won 40 games, and lost 120. But, with the ugly, there have been a tremendous collection of highlights. And Topel knows them all.

Edgardo Alfonzo, an infielder who spent parts of eight of his dozen MLB seasons with the Mets, Topel ranks “Fonzie” as the most underrated Met ever. Todd Pratt's walk-off home run off of Arizona Diamondback pitcher Matt Mantei in Game 4 during the 1999 National League Divisional Series at Shea is a moment in team history sports fans in the ‘Big Apple' will never forget.

“That (Game 4) was my favorite time in the ballpark. When Steve Finley jumped for the ball, it was as if Shea went quiet for a second,” Topel recalls. ” When he didn't get the ball, the place erupted. You could feel (Shea) shaking.”

Weaving the Mets' top moments in franchise history was no easy task for Topel, especially when he had six months to do so. For Mets fans, Miracle Moments is essentially 31 short stories. At the top of Topel's list in learning about the behind-the-scenes stories of Mets memories is former infielder/outfielder Howard Johnson.

Johnson, who shared winning the World Series with his fellow Mets teammates in 1986, caught the attention of Topel, and not for anything he did on the field. The “moment” that intrigues Topel of HoJo was his positioning during Game 6, when Mookie Wilson was at bat, and he hits the ball through Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner's legs.

“Johnson was on deck, when Mookie gets the hit. I wanted to know what he (Johnson) was thinking, if he would have gotten to bat,” state Topel.

Johnson explains that he has thought many times, if he had faced Stanley (Red Sox pitcher Bob Stanley), what would have happened,

East side, west side, all around, everybody's coming down to meet the M-E-T-S Mets of New York town! With a copy of Miracle Moments in New York Mets History in hand, they can do so with such ease.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.